Okay what am I missing here? I thought Governor’s Councilor Michael Albano was running for Hampden County Sheriff, but instead he seems to be concentrating on almost anything but the issues at hand.

Sure he has released positions on the selection of the property on Mill Street for the Western Massachusetts Correctional Addiction Center and about his suggestion on how to fight the opioid addiction crisis.

Some of his recent efforts to gain press have been to attack the press, though, rather than speaking about what he would do if elected sheriff.         

In his March 14 edition of his “Campaign Notes,” he wrote, “The Albano Committee presents 53,466 reasons why Councilor Albano has not been invited on air to NewsRadio 560 WHYN; or The Morning Show with Bo and Adam; or been interviewed for any newscasts since 2014.”

That refers to the fact that Adam Wright’s advertising agency, a business he had before assuming his radio job is working for Albano’s fellow candidate Nick Cocchi.

Then he wrote, “John B. Hesselein, Station Manager for Western Mass News has threatened the Albano Committee following release of the ‘House of Cards’ Parody with this email.”

He then included a screen shot of the email in which Hesselein wrote, “Michael, This note is to remind you that you do not have permission to use any Western Mass News clips. Our corporate office asked me [to] inform you that we suggest that you cease using our intellectual property lest we be required to take further steps.”

Albano solved that problem by using clips from TV22 and MassLive for his most recent “House of Cards” parody.

Albano also objected to The Republican’s management switching the reporters covering the race. Reporter Shannon Young has replaced Conor Berry.

Albano’s response? “Apparently, Conor Berry was being too objective in his reporting.”

I guess the unlimited love between The Republican and Albano that manifested itself when he was mayor and Larry McDermott was the man in charge at the ‘paper is truly over.

TV22 was also in his line of fire. “The Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance reports that William Pepin, President and General Manager of WWLP 22 NEWS has made financial contributions to the Cocchi for Sheriff Campaign.”

Wow, Pepin can’t make a contribution to a political campaign as a private citizen? Would Albano have been concerned about media integrity if Pepin has contributed to his campaign?

Full disclosure: I don’t make contributions to local candidates in order to avoid such situations. My wife and I did send Sen. Bernie Sanders some coin. Judge away.

Now what about this newspaper – did we escape his snark? Of course not. “The Reminder has not been able to find the space in its weekly edition to report on the announcement of Michael Albano for Sheriff. Ironically, Michael Albano and Associates, Inc is located in the Reminder Building and has been for the last 11 years.”

That’s simply incorrect. I’ve written three stories so far about his campaign starting with an announcement story in February when he released a YouTube video about his candidacy. I sent an email to him with links to two of the stories and hand delivered a hard copy of the announcement story that ran in all editions.

I had, what I thought at the time, a cordial and constructive conversation with him.

On March 22, he issued a new edition of “Campaign Notes,” in which the following ran: “The Albano Committee offers its sincere apology to The Reminder. The weekly paper did in fact publish the announcement of Mike Albano for Sheriff.  It was found in the Dining and Entertainment section, complete with a News Analysis and editorial comment with limited editions to only certain sections of Hampden County.”

Here are the sections of Hampden County in which story ran: Springfield, Chicopee, Holyoke, Agawam, Westfield, West Springfield, East Longmeadow, Longmeadow, Hampden and Wilbraham. That covers the largest population centers, sir.

And it was simply in the second section of our Thursday edition, but it was not a Dining and Entertainment story by any means.

Notice that Albano did not refer to any other story in which his campaign was covered.

We try very hard to treat candidates fairly and despite what Albano would like you to believe we are indeed treating him fairly, although clearly that effort isn’t appreciated.

This column is the opinion of its author and does not necessarily reflect the position of the owners or advertisers of this newspaper.

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